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Where do you guys get your honey from?
How much does your mead cost to make?
Thanks,

Aid.

I tend to use about 3lb (1.36kg) per gallon for a traditional mead.

As for prices? Well it depends on where you get the honey from......

I tend to get mine from this place. If you go through the price list you'll see some rather dramatic variations and no, I won't be making any mead with Manuka +15 anytime soon........

The saying goes, the better the honey, the better the mead.

There's also the issue of what actually "better" means. The out of print "Making Mead" book (by Ashton and Duncan - Oh and it's an "amateur winemaker book - same as "first steps") they say that their "best" is heather honey - though it must be honey from "bell" heather, rather than "ling".

I've also heard it said that Buckwheat honey makes good mead, but as Paynes don't stock it (apparently it's not considered that good by honey connoisseurs). I understand that it has two of the good qualities for traditional meads i.e. it's strong tasting and dark coloured.

The bloke from Paynes said that he could order it in for me, but only in 25kg buckets. I'm thinking about getting a price for some.

I did make a gallon of heather honey (english, rather than scottish) last year and that was about £4.50 a lb. It's under the stairs ageing in bulk.

There are lots of other honeys available, but in most cases you'd have to get the honey shipped in and the shipping charges make it prohibitive - but take a look at this site for some idea of the more exotic honeys that can be had !

For hard core mead nutters, then GotMead is the place (that link is for the forums). Unfortunately, it's best to be a "patron", but that costs 25$US per annum (yes I'm a patron). You just have to remember that they don't usually define the different meads in the same way we do i.e. they'll just say "apple mead", rather than cyser (the correct name for it).

Whether you have a local wholesaler/distributor is anyones guess, but it's probably worth a look - as the "speciality" honey's in supermarkets work out expensive and they'll have been "processed to death"....... I prefer just pure, filtered honey.

And no, I don't heat it, other than just to get it out the pot/jar/bucket.

Hope that helps

regards

JtFB

Women will never be equal to men until they can walk down the street with a bald head and a beer gut, and still think they are sexy.